As the interest in my dolls has started to come back, so has my urge to sew for them again. Over the last week or so I've made a couple of dresses for the Little Darlings which I showed in my last blog post and now I've made a few outfits for my BJDs (ball jointed dolls) so I thought I would share the BJD outfits here.
First of all I decided to make a summer dress for Angel, my tanned Ziya by Youpladolls, using a pattern that I've had here for many years as it came from a doll magazine back in about 2008. I've used this pattern many times in the past but hadn't done so recently. It is a pattern designed by Zozolala, the Dutch doll seamstress and I thought it would be a nice style for Angel.
I decided to add a frill to the bottom of the dress using a contrasting fabric which I also used for the shoulder straps.
The bodice is a little loose on her but I like how it hangs. The pintucks are a nice feature and add a bit of interest to the bodice.
Next, using a pattern from Tirin & Katten, I made a summer dress for my Eminor from Harucasting. The pattern comes in many sizes and I decided to use the biggest size, designed for the MSD Imda 4.3 and increase it by 10% as Eminor has a slightly bigger bust than the Imda.
I decided to leave the hem with a raw edge, just for fun and then to wet the dress and screw it up and twist it about a bit! I love how this style suits her so much. I've never thought of Eminor as a girlie girl, but she certainly looks it in this style of dress with her hair loosely piled up on her head and her little brown Mary Jane shoes. I think I need to make more dresses for her now!!!
Sorry about all the similar photos of her but I just couldn't choose as I love this girl so much!
And finally today, I made a dress for Anais, my Annic by Irrealdolls. Anais is just 22 cm tall and very slim. I decided to use the same pattern for her as I used for Eminor above but this time I would try the pattern for the Imda 2.2 size doll. I measured Anais's chest and established that she had approximately the same chest size as the Imda 2.2 and went from there.
I think that next time I would slightly increase the size of the pattern before cutting it out....maybe by about 5 percent and also slightly increase the length of the bodice. I think that a bodice that sits a little bit lower down rather than right under Anais's small bust line, would hopefully eliminate some of the bulkiness.
The bodice in this size is quite tiny and fiddly to work with and being fully lined doesn't help, but I'm pleased with how it came out. I used quilters cotton for this dress but the pattern does suggest that finer fabric would work well, so I might see what I have that's thinner for next time. Also, I ironed the gathers down as suggested in the pattern, I think I'd want to do that a bit differently too as I don't like how some of the gathers are hanging here.
I also have another idea for an outfit for Eminor, this time using the bodice part of the pattern and instead of making it into a dress, using it as a summer top....and adding some shorts. Hopefully I will make a start on that tomorrow.
Watch this space!!!
I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little of what I've been up to on the dolly sewing front. Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Big hugs, Sharon in Spain xxx
Angel received a new camera in the mail. She fancies herself as a bit of a photographer! Now she wants a nice strap to hold the camera apparently.....so back to the sewing machine!
Happy Monday everyone!
I feel like just recently I'm always posting about new arrivals and today is no exception, but I must tell you the story behind this latest adoption because it was so funny how it came about.
The doll in question is called Ziya and she is sculpted by the French artist of Youpladolls. My dear friend Sue in the UK had one of these dolls and I always thought she was lovely, so when Sue mentioned to me that she was thinking of selling her, my ears pricked up. But it seemed Sue was a little bit undecided because the doll had been a surprise gift from her husband and she wasn't sure if she should sell or not, but the doll wasn't getting any attention. In the doll hobby we collectors are like "if the dolls not getting attention then maybe it should go to someone who will love it more....bye!"
Anyway, Sue was undecided at that point and I thought that I'd wait until she listed her for sale before mentioning my interest. I'm such a worrier that I was reluctant to say that I'd like to adopt her in case Sue thought I was after 'mates rates' or something! So, as I said already, I waited in the hope that as soon as she listed her for sale, I could go for her at the asking price. Alas, the saying 'he who hesitates is lost' springs to mind because the following day Sue happily tells me that she's sold her Ziya, the doll was snapped up straight away. Oh well, I thought, it was not to be!
In the meantime, the artist behind the doll had had a stand at L Doll in Lyon, France and the event had just finished so I emailed her to ask if there were any dolls left over, I would be interested in purchasing one. But within a few hours I'd had a reply to say that there weren't any tan dolls left after the event...so that was that, it obviously wasn't to be!
I decided that I'd just catch up on some emails that I'd been meaning to do for ages. I started with another lovely dolly friend, Jane in the UK, as I'd owed her a reply for ages. I started typing out my email, telling Jane all my recent dolly news and about the new arrivals. Then I told her what I'd been up to and how I'd been trying to buy Ziya and what had happened. I sent the email and moved on.
Within minutes an email came winging it's way back to me from Jane. She'd read about my search and was amazed that she had, that very same day, made a decision to sell her Ziya!!!! Was I interested in her? Well, how funny was that! The only reason Jane's doll was not yet up for sale was because she'd not yet got around to taking photos for potential buyers! So of course I said yes!!! I would love to adopt her doll and that's exactly what I did!!!
So Ziya arrived a few days ago, she took less than a week to arrive from the UK and she is lovely. Her name previously was Angeline but I have shortened that to Angel. Jane sent her wig, eyes, an outfit and shoes! Such a lovely parcel to open 😃 The doll is tanned and she is MSD size, in fact she is a smaller MSD at 39cm tall. She wears a 6.5 inch wig and 10mm eyes. I've not taken many photos of her yet because I've had a very busy week but you can be sure that I'll be taking more photos very soon.
She was a little pale from living in the UK 😉 so I added some blush and some tiny freckles across her nose and cheeks. They look a lot more prominent in the photos than they do in real life for some reason! I've not sealed them so they will probably fade or rub off in time.
Here are a few photos of her for now, it was a very blowy day! I hope you like her!
She has beautifully sculpted hands which you can just see in this photo below....
Well that's all I have for you today but hopefully soon I'll have some more photos. I will also be posting some vinyl dolls for sale, including Gotz, Zwergnase and others. I am also going to be selling one of my tiny BJDs, a Lati Yellow Cookie in tan, so if you're interested please watch this space.
Have a great weekend!
Big hugs Sharon in Spain xxx
